images and printing trials

I’m collecting images for a sketchbook-this one is for the section illustrating “Shape”. Or perhaps for “Colour”. I found it on Sunday and it is straight from the camera, no manipulation. The tiny berry is my favourite element.

There were more printing experiments today, as well as steaming yesterday’s pieces. I should have known there would be hitches-the cloth I used for the first attempt was a found scrap  and judging by how pale the finished print is, I think it must be a polycotton mix. The image on the second piece is much stronger and as the cloth is visibly different I must conclude that it was a cotton and the dyes have fixed to it better.

I made another print on a lovely piece of silk organza and was quite pleased , until I moved it from the garage to the house to dry. The wind caught the wet silk  and twisted it round itself, the dyed surfaces sticking together…….I have pulled it apart but the image is not exactly crisp now. I’ll photograph it after it is steamed and dried.

I realised too that the board I am working on is not quite flat and the contact between the screen and the printing surface is not great. I need to sort that out before I do anything much else, but it will have to wait until next week now. I feel the need to be stitching again.